126 upvotes, 14 direct replies (showing 14)
THIS. I have no problem with Christianity itself. It has good morals and centers itself around the idea that you don’t have to be perfect, and never will be “perfect enough”, but that doesn’t matter because God still loves you and wants you to be with him in the afterlife. It encourages love and acceptance and it pushes the idea that no great institution should dictate how you worship and who you worship.
I hate Christians™ because I grew up Southern Baptist and I’ve seen church buildings breed the nastiest, most judgmental, evil people on earth.
My old pastor abandoned his wife after an early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis and was having an extramarital affair. He abandoned his church with no announcement and moved hundreds of miles away to be with this new woman and is now a raging alcoholic.
I read a story on here years ago of a woman being threatened with excommunication by her church to go through with a pregnancy that ended up killing her, and after she died, they hosted a memorial “in her honor” for “bringing a life into the world at the expense of her own”. The baby had no fucking brain (which both she and the church leaders knew) and was stillborn and she left behind a husband and two young kids. Fucking abhorrent.
And of course, y’know, priests, deacons, and pastors diddling 10-year-olds.
Edit: if you have the time and want to trash on new-age fundamentalist Christians check out r/fundiesnarkuncensored for a good time
Comment by [deleted] at 24/05/2021 at 15:07 UTC
54 upvotes, 3 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by Acrobatic_Computer at 24/05/2021 at 15:02 UTC*
12 upvotes, 1 direct replies
It has good morals
There are no shortage of morally reprehensible bits in the bible and extra-biblical bits of various sects. Even things that don't seem that bad (like thought crime) are still pretty abhorrent.
It has good morals and centers itself around the idea that you don’t have to be perfect, and never will be “perfect enough”,
The central tenant of Christianity is that humans are inherently sinners. It isn't that you don't have to be perfect, but that one ought to be perfect (like Jesus), that you inherently can't be perfect, and unless you adopt the religion you will be tortured forever. It is a North Korean style system, except at least you can die in North Korea.
It encourages love and acceptance
History would take issue with this. The Romans as Pagans were significantly more accepting than when they became Christian.
it pushes the idea that no great institution should dictate how you worship and who you worship.
History, again, would take issue with this.
Comment by [deleted] at 24/05/2021 at 16:50 UTC
9 upvotes, 1 direct replies
It encourages love and acceptance
Except, ya know, when it was used to justify Slavery, Racism, Sexism, Pedophelia, The numerous amount of Crusades and holy wars (even today), torturing prisoners, serfdom, insane amounts of greed, excessive punitive systems, land seizures, and genocide.
Comment by ded_ch at 24/05/2021 at 15:55 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
"it encourages love and acceptance"
What religion are you exactly talking about? Certainly not Christianity, right? Seeing as Christianity is based on the Bible, and that book is full of hate, I suspect you didn't get enough sleep before writing this!!
Your personal beliefs might be only about what you mentioned. But then you aren't following the Christian teachings.
Comment by Tough_Academic at 24/05/2021 at 15:07 UTC
7 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Oml THIS. Most atheist and critiques of religion fail to understand this and criticise religion itself, rather than the people who abuse and weaponize religion
Comment by rubberducky1212 at 24/05/2021 at 15:37 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
That first paragraph that you wrote? That sounds great. However, I have not seen that in practice in a church. I've seen people, on their own, who dislike the church, do that. Are there actual congregations that do that? Those seem like the places we need to support, even though I am not religious. Perhaps there are many, I just haven't seen them because I don't live in a populous area and I've always been here.
Comment by ChancyPants95 at 24/05/2021 at 18:53 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
There are some absolute horror stories about how judgmental the church is.
Living in the deep southeast it’s pretty prevalent. I was raised Baptist as well.
At one point in my life I made friends with a woman, we were both pretty broken at that point and heroin was a major point of our lives. As I learned more about her the sadder I got, she had been gang raped at fifteen, became pregnant, and aborted.
The church shunned her, her family shunned her, she had been kicked out and forced into the streets where a multitude of other horrible things happened.
She was 20 when I met her, I was around the same age. One week I hadn’t seen her, so I go check the usual spots until someone finally told me, she had ended up shooting herself in the chest and didn’t make it.
I’ve been clean for a few years now and don’t think about her as much as I used to, but I knew then and there I never wanted anything to do with any sort of religion, regardless if there is a God or not. I’m of the opinion that if there is a higher power it is an uncaring one which I choose not to worship, and I certainly don’t kid myself with the delusion that just because you sit in a pew once a week it makes you a good person.
Comment by sunnyduane at 24/05/2021 at 19:48 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This. There was a terrosit attack in my city years ago and a Muslim member of the public told the terrorist "you're not a Muslim" and that has really stuck with me. True religion is about love, I don't care if homophobes, racists or child abusers think they're men of god, they're not.
Comment by acidfinland at 24/05/2021 at 17:01 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
You should have problem with it. Its thousands of years old pedofilia cult. And anyone calling bs to this should look more.
Comment by Still-Try5661 at 24/05/2021 at 20:28 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
It’s crazy seeing how different churches are at different places. Like my grandmas church is a bunch of old white Karen’s and extremely overweight racist guys, including one who brags about his teenage daughter running away because of his religious rules. Meanwhile at my church on the other side of the country, 99% of the people are young people that support lgbtq and things like that and are all left leaning and hate trump. We even had a sermon about how gay people can still go to heaven and shouldn’t be hated
Comment by [deleted] at 24/05/2021 at 20:51 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Ew, I grew up southern Baptist too. Went back a few years ago for the first time since I was a kid and they were literally laughing at the thought of the world being over 5000 years or whatever. ....what the fuck?
Comment by fearhs at 24/05/2021 at 21:49 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Christianity has shit morals though. Women are to be submissive and can't have authority over men, homosexuality is wrong, no premarital sex, slaves are supposed to obey their masters...
Comment by Educational_Camel_32 at 25/05/2021 at 02:00 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I absolutely love your first paragraph because that’s the sole reason I choose to follow Christianity is that it preaches love and overall good morals. I and any other Christian would have to be blind or ignorant to not seeing the radicals inside our faith. I fear these radicals continued to grow throughout the trump presidency as well. I just hope that radical Christians never end up doing enough here (in the U.S anyways) to bring hate onto all of us. I know Christians have done horrible things in the past, but I’m of the firm belief that the Bible is about interpretation and that those who lead those things and the radicals we have now have simply made an incorrect and horribly mistake in their interpretation.
Comment by Strongstyleguy at 25/05/2021 at 06:10 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
One of my wife's great aunts is super religious but has a soft spot for her oldest daughter and that daughter's children despite the circumstance that led to the first child's birth. The aunt's daughter was the other woman in their former church pastor's extramarital affair and helped end a twenty year marriage.
Yet this aunt who, bless her heart always has a stern Christian lessons for all of us whether we want it or not (lost a lot of respect for her when she didn't apply those platitudes to a certain former President) will drop everything she's doing to babysit for this daughter or shut down any negative things about that daughter's family. It's kinda nuts and definitely hypocritical but that hasn't surprised me since I was a kid.